Natalie Irish

Jermaine Rogers, a celebrated Houston-born poster artist known for his work with rock and roll bands, met Irish during a promotional tour for Vans. Irish’s first commission was a lip print of Jimi Hendrix for Rogers. Her lipstick portrait of Princess Catherine hangs in Ripley’s Believe it or Not in London.

In addition to her signature lip prints, Irish creates fashion accessories including clothing, purses and jewelry, as well as sculptures, charcoal drawings, pencil sketches and oil paintings. She has been featured in ABC News, Bored Panda, Glam.com, The Conan O’Brien Show, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, Time, and Yahoo News. Her art has also been featured at the Scottsdale Art Festival.

In 2011, Irish gained media attention when website Oddity Central linked to a YouTube video of her creating one of her “lip print” pieces, a technique that Irish pioneered in 2001. Irish’s lip prints are created using lipstick and kissing the canvas. A 2011 Houston Press article details her method, including a video of her creating a self-portrait.

Irish was diagnosed with type I diabetes in 2000 during her senior year in high school. She uses an insulin pump to manage her disease. She attended the University of North Texas for their metalsmithing program, but left school after three semesters. She returned to Houston and has since become active in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and American Diabetes Association, donating both time and art to raise awareness of the disease. In lieu of wearing a medical alert bracelet, Irish had “Diabetic” tattooed on to the inside of the right wrist.

Natalie Irish (born 8 October 1982) is a Houston-based visual artist. Her mediums include metal, paint, clay, fabric, and charcoal, but she has gained attention for portraits created using lipstick. She gained media attention in 2011 for her lip print portraits of pop icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, and Roy Rogers.